Using Inspiration 8

A Helpful Tool for Concept Mapping and Outlines

By Emily Mross

Launch Inspiration 8

If you can’t find the logo on your desktop, click Start and look in the program list.

Choose What You Want To Make

You can choose from diagram or outline. Or you can open a previously saved project. There are templates to choose from if you do not want to design your own, or need help getting started.

Diagrams

Let’s try a diagram first.

Main Idea

Inspiration gets you started by creating a main idea bubble. Type your main topic in the bubble.

Using RapidFire

To add new topics quickly, select RapidFire from the top tool bar.

Using RapidFire

A lightning bolt will appear in the selected bubble when using RapidFire. Start typing your new topic, and then press enter. A new bubble will appear and automatically fill with your new topic.

Using RapidFire

Use RapidFire to create several new topics and subtopics. This looks a little disorganized, though. How can we clean it up?

Manually

Select each individual bubble and move it where you want to on the page. You can even use the link tool in the top bar to add new connections.

Automatically

You can also select “Arrange” from the toolbar. It will give you options for creating a uniform arrangement. I am selecting a tree arrangement.

Using new shapes

Inspiration has a shape and picture library available. You can search through these to find fun shapes or pictures related to your topic. This is helpful if your web will be displayed somewhere.

Shapes and Pictures

Simply select the bubble you wish to change, and then select a picture from the library. It will change automatically. Based on my topic, I chose a sailing ship and a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. You can make all of your bubbles the same, or choose different pictures for each.

Outlines

If you need an outline of the diagram you just created, Inspiration can do it for you. Select the outline button from the toolbar, and it will automatically create a new outline.

Outline

Here is the outline automatically created from my concept map. But what if you want to create your own outline?

Creating an outline

On the main screen, select the outline button.

Main Idea

Remember how the first bubble helped us set up our main idea in our diagram? The first line in the outline is for your main idea too.

Adding topics

Add a new topic using the button from the tool bar. An I. will appear where you can type your first topic related to your main idea.

Adding Subtopics

Next to the topic button is the subtopic button. Select it and an A will appear your new topic. You can add ideas related to the topic.

Subtopics

Each time you press the subtopic button, a new capital letter will appear. You can use the topic button to add new topics within your subtopics.

Saving

When you are finished with your projects, go to file, and a drop down menu will appear. If you save your Inspiration project, you will ONLY be able to open it again in Inspiration. You can’t open it on a computer that does not have the program. But there is another option if you do not have the software available to you outside of the library.

Exporting

Exporting your Inspiration project will allow you to open it in other programs, depending on how you save it. There are a few options to choose from. Go to File and then Export to start the process.

Exporting to Word

Exporting to Word is very helpful for outline projects, because you can edit the file later. For diagram projects, you can edit an associated outline that Inspiration creates for your in the export, but you CAN’T edit your diagram outside of inspiration.

PowerPoint

Exporting to PowerPoint is good for sharing your outline or diagram with your class or a large group, because it is in a presentation format. Again, you can edit an outline, but not a diagram.

Image

You can also export as one of several image or graphics files. You will NOT be able to edit either an outline or a diagram in this format. JPEG is the most common format for pictures.

Finishing Up

To finish your export, save it as you would a normal file to your drive, the desktop, or a flash drive.